Just over a year I ago I lost 60-70 lbs of fat. It left me feeling pretty good, but I wasn’t satisfied yet as I still had sagging man boobs, sagging stomach, a fatty ass, etc.
So I continued dieting down and people kept asking if I was anorexic (sp?). I thought they were just trying to be cute until I saw a picture of myself, and I was surprised that I actually did look anorexic. But I still had the man boobs, and the sagging stomach and everything.
It was then that I realized no amount of dieting was going to help my problem areas. I look just normal as long as I wear not too tight shirts, but take it off and my body looks just the same as it did when i weighed 230, only smaller.
So I realized my problem was loose skin. I tried all the rub in creams and the bath solutions, but none of them did a damn thing. And from what I’ve been reading the only thing that works to remove loose skin is surgery.
Now I don’t exactly have a few thousand dollars to spend on surgery and I also don’t have any medical insurance who probably wouldn’t cover it as it’s basically just cosmetic surgery. So I’m wondering, is surgery really the only option I have? Like I said it’s been a year and I have seen no noticable natural improvement.
Is it possible at all to grow into the loose skin? Like if I were to gain some serious size (muscle of course), would my body already realize I had excess skin and let the muscle fill it out? Or is there really no way to solve this problem without seeing a surgeon?
Dude…without knowing your height, current weight, BF, etc., it sounds like you overdid it in the diet down department. You say you were 230 and lost 60-70 pounds of fat. I’m no math genius, but that puts you at around 170. WTF. Put on some muscle mass.
My understanding is that the body will very slowly get rid of excess skin, but it is an extremely slow process and beyond a certain amount surgery is the only way to get rid of the excess skin. But I don’t think you are at the impossible situation, though it could take a few years. As far as gaining muscle, it couldn’t hurt. I could see it helping somewhat. Larger muscle does require more skin also, unfortunately not always in the same spots though. I have stretch marks under my arms due to muscle gain, so my skin couldn’t keep up with the gain. (Boy do I miss those days.)
I would recommend putting on muscle (I don’t know when I wouldn’t) and take periodic pictures over a two year period. (A long time I know.) After one and two years you will have a good idea how your skin is responding. Aging would probably slow the process. If your skin tends to spring back from a little tug then it shouldn’t be a factor though.
I had this problem 2 years ago when I lost 87 pounds but it was really only in my stomach. The only thing I can tell you is that it got a little better over the last year.
One of the problems is that people often lose too much too fast. The skin doesn’t have time it needs to adapt. Slower fat loss over a longer period of time through diet (not starvation but proper nutrition with some calorie deficet) combined with weight training to firm and add LBM and moderate cardio is the ticket. As to the other recommendations… trying going on a period of MASS building. increase food intake and add heavy weight training 3 -4 days a week and reduce cardio. try doing this for 6 months to a year and then go on another fat reduction training phase you’ll look, feel, and be much healthier.
what most casual trainers dont understand is that when you lose that much weight in that short of a time period. you lose a combination of fat and muscle. you didnt lose 60-70lbs of fat. you probably lost about a 50-50 mix of fat and muscle. when your on a calorie restricted diet, and working out your body will burn your muscle for energy. when the muscle that is inside the fat is decreased the skin begins to hang. you need to bump up your calories, especially from protein. start lifting heavy, and keep your cardio to about 65-70% of your max heart rate.